Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Urgent Request from Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid

Vital request from Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid.....I've signed it, and urge you to stand with a million other Americans...liberals, moderates and even conservatives...and also sign it. -------------------------"The nuclear option is a shocking power grab in its own right. More stunning is that President Bush has asked Republican Senators to stake their reputations on and break the rules for such shockingly unqualified judges. For example, Janice Rogers Brown was twice rated not qualified by the California Judicial Nominations Evaluation (JNE) Commission, The Commission's report indicated that "nothing in [Brown's] legal experience [distinguished] her from other average practitioners," and some of Brown's opinions contained "gratuitous" personal opinions. In addition her opinions on race discrimination and on the rights of the disabled are nothing short of draconian. Stand with Senate Democrats against these nominees: http://democrats.senate.gov/filibuster-form.cfmThe Republicans are arrogant with power. If they don't like the rules, they break them. If they don't like someone standing in their way, they attack them. We have Republican Leadership in the Senate that is considering throwing out 200 years of Senate history in order to pack the courts with right wing judges. And we have a Republican Leader in the House of Representatives who attacks judges who don't agree with him and corrupts our government by running roughshod over the ethics committee. It's a complete abuse of power by the Republicans and if they can get away with this on judges, they will get away with this on legislation like Social Security too. There is no distinction. This is about more than a few unqualified judges, this is about protecting the rights of disabled Americans to work, the rights of minorities to vote, the rights of every American to have clean air, safe drinking water and be heard in Washington. Please join me on the floor of Senate: http://democrats.senate.gov/filibuster-form.cfmThank you, Harry Reid "